The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday announced it won’t hear a case seeking protection for lesbian, gay and bisexual workers under existing civil rights law barring sex discrimination.

The court announced it denied a writ of certiorari in Evans v. Georgia Regional Hospital as part of an order list Monday reflecting decisions made justices at a conference last week Friday. It takes a vote of four justices to agree to take up a case, although the vote isn’t made public.

The petition, filed in September by the LGBT group Lambda Legal, sought clarification the nationwide prohibition on sex discrimination in the workplace under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 applies to cases of lesbian, gay and bisexual people.

Greg Nevins, Lambda Legal’s Employment Fairness Project Director, expressed disappointment in a statement the Supreme Court refused to take up the case.

“By declining to hear this case, the Supreme Court is delaying the inevitable and leaving a split in the circuits that will cause confusion across the country,” Nevins said. “But this was not a ‘no’ but a ‘not yet,’ and rest assured that Lambda Legal will continue the fight, circuit by circuit as necessary, to establish that the Civil Rights Act prohibits sexual orientation discrimination.” Read more via Washington Blade